we'll have to ask congress for that additional support. those are preliminary at this point. want to make sure we put the right resources to this and adjust our work is necessary. i want to emphasize that our number one priority will continue to be the safety and security of the existing -- we don't intend to take resources away from that to help the effort to analyze what happened in japan the decisions on the new reactors are still some time away. right now they're getting public comment. that will take a few months to get all of those comments in. then we will begin the process of reviewing them. that is still several months away. i am not sure exactly how we will balance our resources. mother nature has thrown

a hideous tons of the japanese, bigger than their civil a nuclear engineers and licensing authority's anticipated. how can we be confident -- not that we are likely to say tsunami -- how can we be confident that we won't have a hurricane, earthquake and other natural phenomenon that is bigger than the biggest thing you have budgeted for it? guest: the way we think about it is we come up with what we think is the maximum natural phenomenon that we expect to occur and we designed these facilities around that with a little bit extra margin because we now there are some things we don't know. we recognize there may things we had not envisioned or thought about. we have established a program that we call our severe accident program. regardless of what the cause may be, it deals with the situation in which you get a very severe

impact to the nuclear reactor site. we have procedures that the utilities have to develop to deal with these kind of situations. that is how we build in that extra sense of certainty that even if we experience something we had not anticipated that we have an approach and a way to deal with it. the final effort we have is this effort after september 11 where we looked at a situation where you could have a very severe fire or explosion at a nuclear plant. possibly not natural, possibly coming from an external threat. the impact of that kind of situation may be similar to one of these unknowns natural phenomenon. we took that situation and required the utilities to come up with procedures to deal with the fundamental things you need to do like keeping the reactor

cool and keeping the spent fuel pool cool. if they need any equipment, required them to states that and have that identified. we would know immediately what to do and how to mitigate it. host: the benchmarks we have seen over the last week and a half, three mile island which remains operational and chernobyl which is closed and has become a tourist site in the ukraine -- what is your early prognosis for the long-term impact on the fukushima plant in the area around that plant in terms of the livability? guest: i want to speculate until we have the final situation ultimately resolved. there obviously will be contamination that has to be addressed and there will likely be difficult operating these reactors in the future. the focus right now for everyone is making sure that we can

continue to bring this crisis to a close and we will continue to help the japanese government do that. host: the chair of the nuclear regulatory commission, thank you for being with us. >> president obama continues his trip to latin america. tomorrow, he isn't santiago, chilly, with a speech. -- he is in santiago, chilly. -- chile. today on "road to the white house," an interview on why someone is likely to enter the gop race. this is about 45 minutes. >> why are you thinking about running for president? >> i am thinking about running

for president for several reasons. reasons. my parents were able to achieve their dreams. they wanted to own a house and turn it into a home. my parents just could not afford to buy an entire home. that was one of their dreams, and they achieved that. in input -- they wanted to see their two sons get a better their two sons get a better start in life and did. life and did. i graduated from morehouse college in 1967, and my brother, he eventually graduated from morris brown college, so we were able to achieve our american dream based on our own individual aspirations and determination.

and for my grand kids, i do not believe they're going to have that opportunity because of the changes that are happening in this country. >> such as? >> such as too much legislation shoved down the throats of the american people. too much regulation. the regulations of the environmental protection agency. there is the development of energy from our own resources in this country. and too much taxation. we need to pay taxes in order to pay for the things that the federal government ought to do it, but we are paying too much in taxes, because the tax code is being manipulated by some of the politicians to select winners and losers. i believe consumers should make those choices, and, ultimately, what i would like to see is to replace the tax code with the fair tax, which is a national

consumption tax, so all of these constraints on our lives, businesses, and individuals, are making it much more difficult for my grandchildren, your kids and grandkids come to achieve their american dream. i was just over at the heritage foundation, and they shared with me the economic freedom index report of 2011. i was startled when they showed me that in 2009, the united states of america was no. 6 in the world, not even one, but we were six, and in 2010, we dropped to eight. and in 2011, we dropped to ninth. because of the attack of all of the regulatory and tax stuff and being opposed to businesses and individuals, and i think that is

going to strangle the ability of our children and their grandchildren to pursue their dreams, and i believe in that old adage that we all have to use our individual powers to do what we can do to try to make things right. >> when someone talks about your candidacy, if you go back in history, from abraham lincoln through today, only two presidents did not hold elective office. military generals. grant and eisenhower. >> yes. i will be the third one to have not held office and the first one to have not held office and to have not been in the military, but i respond to that and say to the people, most of the people in washington, d.c., have held political office. how is that working for you? the many town hall meetings that i have been at.

they really do not care that i have not held public office. what they see in me is a problem solver and not a politician. when i put that on the table when i am talking to groups, and i do this constantly, to get my name out there people at the grassroots level, i say, "i have never held public office," and i get applause, because they really are sick and tired of people who have held public office thinking that that is the primary requirement. the political landscape and the political dynamics have changed in the last few years be i happen to believe we are going to see it begin in november 2012, and it is because of the changing dynamics and give someone like me a chance to get the nomination and become president. >> you did run for office and came in second in the georgia senate race.

>> yes. >> what did you learn from losing? >> i did not lose. it was an impressive second, coming within points against a standing congressman, and there are two big lessons that i learned. if i were to run for office again, i would start earlier, hire good people earlier, and representative -- a representative succeeded primarily because his campaign had been effective as a whole year before i could get my off of the ground. i had to go through three campaign managers before i found one i had confidence in a. so i was a year behind. i finally got a campaign manager and finally got the campaign going. the representative was getting commitments in terms of money from a lot of people, commitments from organizations.

his name identification was already pretty high, so in a short period of time, i was able to get my name out there from 0% to 50% son, so if i had started earlier, knows how that would have turned out -- from 0% to 50%. >> a field with a lot of former >> a field with a lot of former officials, mitt romney, others. >> the ground game that we have developed over the past couple of years, and i was developing this on purpose for the purpose of running for president, and what i mean for that, let me give you a football analogy. teams can have a string -- strong running game, but maybe they do not have something else. a strong passing game.

a running game. we are developing a strong ground game, as i call it, because of the natural affiliation i have had with national organizations for years. i am the former ceo of the national restaurant association, a former chairman of the board. i have worked extensively with americans for prosperity. i am very well known with the tea party movement going on in this country. i have worked with the fair tax organization for over 10 years. with the number of other organizations, and as part of my business career, i have been a keynote speaker at many conferences and conventions, all over this country, and even in different parts of the world, where people know herbert cain as a business leader who knows about leadership. my ground game had already started, and now, we are simply

building that. i believe that a successful ground game, a successful grass- roots awareness has been a lot easier to get media attention. let me just give you one piece of compelling information, we think. the tea party patriots held a national policy summit in phoenix about three weeks ago. there were about 2500 attending. they put all of the likely candidates, 90 or 20 of them, whether they had announced or officially had exposure or not, herbert cain came in first. the next person that was closest was six percentage points behind. that was the actual data. my awareness with people on the ground is a lot greater than the visibility i have had. >> so what role will the tea

party activist, what role will they play in determining the nominee? does that make 2012 different from 20008, 1992, 1981? >> absolutely. the answer to your second question is yes. the impact of the citizens' movement is great. the tea party movement, the tea party patriots, the tea party express. all of these organizations in this country, all of the conservative organizations, they have mobilized their membership, so more of them are being acted. more of them are getting information about what is going on, what is happening, and what makes this different in 2012 is that more and more folks who have not been active at all, or any sort of political event, they are much more active. when i was doing my radio show

for the last couple of years, occasionally, i would take my show on the road as part of a take back to work. i would invite businesses to come up to a location that we would have selected, and we would get large audiences, and i would always ask the question, how many of you have never been to sort of a political event before, and 50% of the people consistently raised their hands. so the difference is going to be, number one, more people are active, and this is one to be the second thing that has changed. information. 10 to 15 years ago, people did not have access to accurate, correct information about what they were sometimes being told

period. now, they of the power of the internet and the power of conservative talk radio. they have got blogs. redstate.com is one of the ones that i think about. >> between you and somebody else. they have a track record. i know where they stand. you do not. what do you tell them? somebody looking at you and somebody yells verses your track record -- taking your track record into account. >> those mentioned as possible nominees, look for leadership.

which of the candidates present the greatest leadership based upon the record, based upon business experience, because leadership in the biggest, toughest jobs in the world is going to require somebody who really has a grasp on problem solving, which i have used, successful business people have used, to make sure that you set the right priorities, make sure that you surround yourself with the right people, strong people around you, and make sure that if you do about that you can then execute any entity or business or the united states of america, but if you do those four things, engage the people, and yet, -- >> and yet, as you

know, running a business is very different from running the government. >> yes, but it has one thing in common. when my associates knew what we were trying to do, and there was the strategy, they were much more likely to executed effectively. taking that same analogy to the american people, i hear every day from people. they feel left out of the process. what is going on in washington, d.c., is in the people's best interest, and this is why, when i do those first things effectively, i will be a president of the people, by the people, and for the people, making sure that we are engaged in solutions.

members of congress. >> that is my next question. how do you deal with a divided congress, like we are seeing now? the tax crisis, george w. bush. clinton. changing the tone of washington. they admitted that they failed in those areas. >> well, with all due respect, i think that they both did a good job and a lot of respects, but my energy to connect with people -- i think there was a former senator and said they will see the light. this is have you bring this congress together. and there have been recent examples that have demonstrated that. when the united states house of representatives passed the cap and trade bill, one representative said that by the

time it zipped through congress, and democrats were getting ready to send it over to the senate, but everything was going on, she was asked on a television show what happened, and she said that the party line melted when she was asked about on television. the citizens' movement that i have been talking about, to show that legislation down the throats of the american people, like president obama shoved obama care down the throats of the american people. steve, you know the house and the senate could not agree on a compromise. they could not even agree. democrats were in control of the senate. democrats were in control of the house. so what did the president do? he used the power of the president to get members of the house of representatives to have

the plan and vote on the senate bill. many of them paid for it on november 2. >> is barack obama a good leader? >> no. he is a politician. but he is not a leader. and here are some examples as to what he is not a leader. number one, no leadership model on the planet says surround yourself with 36 czars all along with the heads you inherited as president. how are you going to manage that? his leadership model was flawed from the very beginning. secondly, leaders surround themselves with people that know more about certain subjects than they do. to complement your areas of

weakness, if you want to call them that. the president appointed people that did not have as much business experience as he had, and he had none. 7% of the president's appointees, 7%. the lowest in recent history. those surround themselves with a lot of people, even if it were only 50%, 50%, that would have been better. so this is why they have proposed, try to pass, and implement policies that did not work. one of my guiding principles, steve, and one of my guiding principles as president of the principles as president of the united states, go to the people closest to the problem, and they

will more than likely have a better solution on how to fix the problem. >> finish this sentence. the state of union today is -- >> in free fall. >> in free fall. >> yes. the state of the union is in a freefall. the country is stalled. people are not clear what the foreign policy strategy is with what is going on in the middle east. they cannot pass a fiscal year budget, and we're almost done with the fiscal year. with the fiscal year. and the attention is being shifted constantly to social issues, a lack of sound fiscal stimulus policy, and the focus is on passing legislation that we do not need or want on the part of democrats who are in control of the senate and the

white house. the state of this union is in freefall. >> what about the house? >> the republicans in the house of representatives have slowed the process down. they cannot turn the ship without having control of the senate and control of the white house. they have slowed it down. but they know they can push, but they cannot stop it. radical socialization. >> how be reduced a $15 trillion debt? debt? >> you do a couple of things.

financial stimuli that is correct. making tax rates per minute. extensions for two years is two years of uncertainty. nearly $1 trillion can come back. it has been generated by corporations. provide a real payroll tax holiday, all of it, and 6.2% 4 employers. all of it. they differ for spending and that they are direct, not in direct stimulus, and phase two would be to totally replace the tax code with the fair tax.

tax code with the fair tax. it has been calculated that if we continue to grow at this rate, the chinese will have a gdp as big of -- as big as ours in 15 or so years. we have got to get this going. then we start doing things to dramatically bring down the national debt consistently. there is an entitlement mentality. unfunded mandates, we would change the rules. unfunded mandates. we must empower the states.

we must empower businesses by improving and simplifying the regulatory environment. one of the reasons we do not have any effective energy independence strategy in this country is because of the regulatory environment. in power businesses. in power businesses. we will be creating careers because we still have a lot of advantages that other countries do not have. we still have a great structure. we still have a great transportation in the world. we still have some of the smartest and brightest people. these are some of the greatest entrepreneurs. so we are, in fact, in a position.

we simply need to get government out of the way. >> who in the republican party has been a guiding force for herman cain? >> jack kemp, who was also from new york. secretary kemp, he stirred what i call the american spirit. despite challenges that we face. despite the snail pace at which change takes place in washington. and the american people are hungry for stirring that spirit of america while we face our problems.

abraham lincoln. abraham lincoln took over this nation. he was not afraid of the challenge. he knew that he needed to keep this nation together. he had people fighting and working against him, lincoln had the ability to appeal to the american spirit. in order to keep this nation together. not everyone agreed with releasing the slaves. he knew it was the right thing to do. "we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal."

but they put the bar where they knew it had to be. that kind of stuff fuels the american spirit. >> you are a minority of the republican party. the vast majority of african- americans. they are democrats. >> yes. >> so have you been in braced by the gop? . .

>> having an impact on them around me. when i went to godfather's pizza in 1986 it was going bankrupt. people that look at the financials say maybe it's another company that should go bankrupt. i saw 12 thousand people's jobs at stakes. as a result of being the president and ceo, i saw that achievement why would someone choose that verses another

brand? what's the in the psyche of the american public? >> consistency of the brand. um... quality of the brand and are they price competitive if you have a superior quality product. then you can command slightly higher premium price but don't go crazy. they have a limit in which the consume ler say you have a better product but i don't want to pay this much. american corporations spent much time evaluating strength of that brand and whether or not they can command the premium price. similar if you look for someone to be the president of the united states of america. >> you knew my next question. hugh new you knew my next question. people openly have to look at all. the candidate is going to be

president barack obama. that's just not the history of either one of the major political parties so when you look at the field of potential nominees of the republican party. people in their own psychic look in the way of the brand that each individual presents. and in this case, it's does this person project confident or make sense, are they offering some realistic ideas and more importantly, do they feels an if they can trust this individual. because people ultimately want to follow a leader that they can believe in. so that's what they going to be looking for as they make the decision process over the next signal. >> married with how many grandchildren? >> maryd for 42 years. 32 year old son. be 33 next week. three grandkids.

12, 7, and 16 months. >> how did you meet your wife? >> through a mutual friend. young lady that i'm - i went to high school with. attended a different church than i attended but we went to the same high school, and so this good friend o of mine named ruth. she was a class mate and we didn't live that far from each other and so ruth, for about two years, kept saying to me, herman. i want you to meet my little sister. i said, ruth, thank you but blind dates have not worked out for me very well. time goes by. herman, i want you to meet my listsl

little sister. so one day she through a party and i was a freshman in college and little sister had graduated from high school on her way to college. she introduced me at the party. herman, this is the little sister i've been trying to get you to meet for a long time and i go, is this the little sister? i been running away from? [laughs] i met one of the smartest, most attractive young ladies. i think it was love at first site. >> how you stay married for 42 year? >> don't try to change each other. this is what i tell young people all the time. know who your marrying and know who they are. know the things that you love about them, understand the things you don't like about them. but don't try to change them. that's when couples get in trouble. >> you had a bought with

cancer. when your die nosed and how you feel today? >> i diagnosed with stage four cancer which meant i had in my colon and liver. when it's stage four that means it already went to other parts of body. in 2006. stage four cancer as first surgeon i consulted with said that's as bad as it can get. that didn't make me feel good but is it what it was. my treatment was chemo therapy. double surgery to remove the affected parts and in my case as my surgeon said, he said your lucky with your cancer. i said how do you get lucky with cancer and he said, all my tumors were isolated to a certain portion of my liver so they can remove that and cultivate the main part of it to grow back. that was five years ago.

i did more chemo therapy. five years of totally cancer free. feel great with only a 30 percent chance of having made it. i knew god was smiling down on me and his message was quite simply. herman, not yet. >> you have a routine now with your doctor. some sort of treatment five years out? >> no treatment. tiss. now i'm on once a year. get a catscan. all of the blood tests and they do some sophisticated tests with cancer. x-rays i do that now on an annual basis. right after my initial treatment we - i with u doing through a battery of tests and it was so consistently good that my oncologist said we don't need to do it every six months. now that i'm coming up on my five year anniversary it's continuing to be once a year to make sure it has not reoccurred and it has not.

>> where do you go for ideas and information and what do you read and who do you talk so >> i read the bible for ideas. i have a few very close friends we'll talk very informally about things. as most people, i have some confidants i can talk to them about anything under the sun. you have to have a few people you can trust totally to be able to have those kind of conversations. i enjoy reading thomas sole. people that put in it in common sense language in terms of here's ideas we ought to look at and pursue. i read a lot of the papers published by the heritage foundation. i happen to think, and i'm not on their board and they don't pay me. they happen to be one of the greatest sources of accurate

analysis, policy and information we have in this country. there's some others but i got to tell you, i've known ed since the early 1990's when we is served on a commission chaired by him. he has built a tremendous organization with a tremendous track record of solid, policy analysis and information that a lot of people turn to when they want good guidance. >> would you - what ideas do you green from the bible? >> first, do what's right. unfortunately too many people in washington d.c. consider the political consequences first. that sometimes can lead them to doing things that may not be right if you start with do what's right, treat people right, you probably going to end up with a correct result in the

end. but if you start out with, what are the political consequences? no. what's the right thing to do? it wasn't right to shove obama care down the throats of the majority of the american people. polls had zone before he signed it a majority of the people did not want that solution to the problem he and the democrats supposedly were trying to solve. they wanted patient-centered, market driven ideas and they were right there in, hr 3400 but a lot of people never heard of that. do what's right. >> what do your wife and kids think about this potential run. >> my wife thinks i'm nuts but she said, you've been nuts before when you decided to do something that seemed against the odds. and she and i were talking about

it. my wife thanked the lord has always been very supportive of all my endeavors because, we just always have had that relationship. she's been that kind of a supportive wife. she's done thing in her life and career but always been supportive of my career. we had an understand i would be the primary breadwinner and we were talking about this whole president bid and i ask her, i said gloria, what scare use the most? i know this is something that i never even considered this going growing up. three years ago never considered possibly running for president. she said, the thing that scares her the most is that i might win. because she has seen me turn odds against the odds. turn a region of burger king.

take a low project at pills bury when i was vice president of information technology. i took a project behind schedule and over budget and we finished the property ahead of schedule below budget. she has been apart of my life, been apart of the challenges i have faced and so her biggest fear is i might win. my children, they too, are used to dad taking on some incredible challenges. and to quote my daughter. when she was asked by a reporter. many, many, many years ago. i think she was still a teenager. she happened to be in a room when i was doing an interview and the reporter turned to my daughter and said, what do you think about your dad with all this publicity and all this notoriety. this is when i'm with the godfather and my daughter said, he's just dad. as long as i can just be dad and

just be papa to my grandkids, life is good. >> let me conclude by asking about your potential rivals in a word or phrase, describe your view of them. romney? >> formidable. businessman. but will have to wrestle with what has become labeled as romney care. >> polenti. >> an accomplished politician. and accomplished governor. articulate. - but, some people have said not very inspiring.

>> hayley barber. >> dangerous? in a good way. [laughs] hayley basher is one of the smartest governors and one of the smartest office holders. yes, he's a politician but he's dangerous in the good way because he has been in washington. he said, his goal was to go back to mississippi and became governor and he did. he's very competent and capable. i have the great aes amount of respect for him and have known him for many, many years and so he could be, he could be a force if he were to decide to run because of the depth of his contacts, as well as really understanding the process and able to connect with people. >> couple more. newt gingrich, your friend?

>> formidable. one of the most intellectually sound thinkers on the planet. period. not just politics. >> his personal life a factor in this race? >> i don't think so. i think people look at your personal life history more previously than they do today. over the last several years while i was on the radio, steve, noticed that the terminal coming from listeners, where many of them had gone from being concerned about the future of america, to being fearful about the future of america. and in that regard, they want somebody that can help us get us back on the right track. >> sarah palin? >> very popular. tells it like it is and she inspires a lot of people. >> two final points. mentioned radio a couple of

times. when and how long? >> i was on the radio for five years, two years doing a weekend show, the herman cane show and then three years up until the most reenforcemently. five night as week onw sv out of at lan tax georgia. >> what's the hermanator? >> a nickname given to me by member of the restaurant association when i was chairman of the board back in the early 1990's when we were fighting hillary care. as an officer of the national restaurant association, i became one of the primary spokesperson against hillary care. and so, a gentlemen by the name of larry maccarthy helped us to develop some of the commercials that we used to tell people to the truth to wake people up about hillary care. larry tells the story about how one night he was watching t.v.

and the commercial he had done with me in. representing the views of small businessmen had just run on his t.v. set. and then he was flipping the channels and he saw the movie, the herman - terminator. he got the idea. so he was excited about it and told the staff at the national restaurant association about this new nickname and it stuck. >> finally, what is your process in actually decided whether you will run? sounds like you are running? >> put my toe in the water. now it's up to my neck and the feedback we've gotten from people across this country. tens of thousands who are willing to volunteer. the response we've gotten from people in terms of funding. the response that i have gotten from my many visits to texas. south carolina. new hampshire as well as iowa in

terms of people connecting with my message. common sense solutions as i call it. those are the things that over the next several weeks we'll take a good hard look at to make sure we make the final decision to go forward. so it'll be within the next several weeks. several, could be five or six or less. >> herman cane. thank you very much for joining us. >> it's been my pleasure. thank you, steve. >> another potential republican candidate now. hayley barber speaking at a fund raceer in iowa. talk about defense cuts to low tear national debt and lessons american cans learn from the japanese nuclear crisis. this is in davenport about 25 minutes.

>> i told people at home. this guy will be a first rate state chairman. he's off to a pretty good start. i like hearing the statistics judy. picked up the senate seat. how seat. i'm a former county chairman. was in my county twice. once for four years and once for six. i'm going to just tell you. this is where elections are won. right here where the rubber meets the road. and my what is off to your great county chairman. judy, thank you for the job you do. plus p

>> it's interesting i would be here in march. march the 15th. but i'm not going to have anybody stand behind me. as long as can i keep matt in front of me. i'm really glad to be here for this kick-off of the chairman series speaker events because we're getting ready for something that's very important. the 2012 election is going to be a watershed election in american history. matt didn't go into all my pedigree and shouldn't. but i dropped out of college in 1968 and ran 30 counties for anybodies on and i've been involved in every presidential campaign since nixon. i've told some of the leaders of the country committee today. in all that appear i don't haved o time until about two years ago. there was an expression, a statement that i had never heard

made. however, every day, every week for the last year and a half, i've heard people say this. i'm concerned my children and grandchildren are not going to inherit the same country that i inherited. i never heard that at the depth office watergate or the height of the war in vietnam. skri my carters administration. bill clinton's administration it as reminder of the stakes of this election. we need to focus on winning in 2012. they say 50 years ago or more, skon rad hilton the great hotel magnate was on the ed sullivan show. maybe a couple of ya'll are old enough to remember ed sullivan. maybe steve. one sunday night. 12,000,000 american households

tuned into ed sullivan and he called out conrad hilton. created a new business. business icon that the bill gates of his day. and ed sullivan said mr. hilton if you can only tell the american people one thing what would you tell them. conrad said put the shower curtain inside the tub. [laughter] now there was a guy that knew what was important to him. and i'm here to talk to you for a minute about what's important to me. we have an enormous e lebron in 2012 and as some of you know, i'm thinking about being a conditioned candidate. i'm not deciding until the end of april but i have thought a lot about what we have to do. whether hayley or somebody else. we can look at the 2010 election

and get a guide post for 2012. why did we win enormous victory in 2010? because the election was about policy. the election was about the great issues facing the american people. that's right. [applause] when elections are about issues and public policies good for republicans, because on most issues, most americans, agree with us. and as we saw in this election when independents voted for republican candidates for the congress by 60-40 margin it was about public policy. because people look at what's happening in our country today, why? why is our economy not recovering like it should? why is it recovering so much more slowly than not for past

recessions? why do we lose 7,000,000 jobs in the first two years? the home prices last month were just back to what they were in 2004? the g.d.p only went up 2.8 percent the last quarter of 2010 when you look at 1983-84 after a similar deep recession, at this point the economy was roaring? why? i'll tell you why. not because of failure of business or failure of free enterprize. it's a failure of government policy. the policies of this administration are making it harder to grow our economy and it's getting harder to create jobs in the united states. and pick an issue you want to start. taxes? the president, for two years had hanging over the american economy, this stated

purpose of the large tax increase in american history. he lost no republican senator would vote for it. they lost. and that was in december. yet, within a month, at the state of the union address the president reiterated. he still wanted that large tax increase in american history and then a few days later he came out with this budget for next year. 1.3 trillion dollars of new taxes on the american economy. now, how are we going to grow the economy and create jobs, if the government will take another 1.3 trillion dollars out of the economy? how are businesses are going to make decisions to expand or hire more people? to invest when they have hanging over their heads that the president wants to hit them for 1.3 trillion dollars that otherwise could go to capital

investment? to more employees and to better pay or better pensions. spending? you know this administration thinks that government growth is the answer to economic growth. let me just tell you. bigger government mean as smaller economy. let me say that very directly. bigger government, means a smaller, private economy. how can the private economy grow when government sucks all the money out? but that's what we've seen. the last two years the first two years of the obama administration. they raise spending - i'm sorry, they spent 7 trillion dollars. and we lost seven million jobs. i guess we ought to be glad they didn't spend 12 trillion dollars or we would have lost 12,000,000 jobs.

but their idea of growing the government is helping the economy is just backwards and it's wrong headed. you can tell. we've got administration up there where there's nobody that ever signed the front side of a paycheck in their career. but it's not just taxes and spending, the gigantic deficits are a huge, huge drain on our economy and our chance for economic growth. do you know that from the constitutional convention of 1789 up until president barack obama was inaugurateed january of 2009 and that 120 year period, the american government ran unless depth in that 220 years than the obama budgets

will do in 10-year? 13 trillion dollars of debt in the next 10-years if obama's budget is adopted? the news media talks about he's moved to the middle and he got the message. well, what are the fact? the fact is after he got the message, his budget proposes increasing spending the 3.8 trillion dollars. he proposed increasing the deficit to 1.6 trillion dollars in one year. can you imagine if your business - if your business revenue was 42% less than your expenditures? you know you could write a book about it. i would start at chapter 11. [laughter]

the fact is - the government can't spend itself any more rich than your family can spend itself rich. but they same time seem to have lost site of that. the chairman said. his little girl comes into the world under a large debt that she and my grandchildren are going to be paying off when their our age if we don't do something about it and turn the corner and turn it quickly. we all understand that the cast skieding effect of federal spending and debt means every year you let things go in the wrong direction it becomes much harder to get them back on track to get us back to normal. and we know what needs to be done. i mean first of all we don't have a 1.6 trillion dollar

deficit because we tax too little. it's because we spend too much if we do something about that we have to do it on the spending side. we need to cut spending. we can cut spending. the white house for reagan when we were rebuilding military. let me tell you something. we the save money at the pentagon. anybody thinks you can't, has never been to the pentagon. i can tell you. general you know that i'm telling you right. we can save money on defense and if we republicans don't propose saving money on defense, we'll have no credibility about anything else. it is smart, good, right, faithful to our campaign that our guys right now are trying to cut the nondefense discretionary budget. trying to cut at annual rate of about 100 billion dollars a year. that's important. but it's a drop in the bucket.

we're talking about a 1.6 trillion dollar deficit. and you cannot deal with that unless you deal with entitlements. again, we'll have no credibility if we talk about getting control of the budget. if we don't deal with entitlements. this is an area where the president is absolutely a-wol. where he understands vividly what had to be done and he is chosen not to lead. without his leadership, we still need to deal with this. but it means that the next president is going to have to have the courage to deal with entitlement spending in a way that protects our beneficiaries, but does so without running up this unbelievable burden on

generations to come. the good news is it can be done. the good news is it can be done, but it must be led by the president. if we don't have a president who has the courage to tell the american people the truth. something i think the american people are prepared to hear, then we're not going to make the progress that we need to make if we're going to get our country back. taxes, spending. deficit. depth. health care. how do you expect employers to employees when they have no idea because of obama care what the obligations and costs they will have for those employees? this is another example where the obama administrations policies are hurting the economy and making it harder to hire people rather than easier.

and energy policy? this administrations energy policy can be summarized in one sentence. they want to drive up the cost of energy, so americans will use less of it. that's not energy policy that's environmental policy. they think we'll have less pollution if we use less energy. we'll also have a much smaller economy. we americans for 400 years, since the british landed in jamestown have been blessed with abundant affordable american energy. and this administration is the first since i don't know when, that doesn't have a policy focused on more american energy. but that's what our policy should be. more american energy. [applause] all of the above.

oil, gas, coal, nuclear, ethanol, a word probably foreign to many of your ears. we have got to have all of the above, and we're going to have them for the foreseeable future. i mean, we're not going to see coal go out of the energy picture. we're not going to see oil or gas or nuclear. we've got a lot to learn about what happened japan and we need to learn and see what the things are that are similar to the way we do things in the united states, and what are not similar. but we need to understand 20% of the electricity in the united states comes from nuclear and it's going to be that way for a long time and there's many people, including me, that believes it be moves as a nation to increase that so other things can be used for other purposes

rather than just generating electricity. this is not as simple as the oil spill where it was clear for those of us close by that they cut corners. that when they were shuting in the well, they didn't follow the normal standards and didn't follow the normal protocols. we've built 40,000 oil wells and nothing vaguely similar had happened before. the reason is because they didn't do what everyone knows your supposed to do. we don't know what happened in japan. i mean we know about the earthquake and tsunami but don't know enough about the systems and what's worked and failed. we need to study and learn and make sure we continue to have safe, reliable, clean nuclear energy in the united states. let me kind of come to a conclusion here by saying this. we republicans need to be

careful as we talk about cutting spending. as we talk about not raising taxes. in fact new jersey my view i would propose cutting taxes. today, in the united states. today in the world, we have a global battle for capital and money. yet because of our mistake in tax code we have a trillion dollars of u.s. money stranded overseas belonging to our mult-nation corporations that's sitting. and it's either going to sit there or it's going to be invested information remember economies like europe, asia and south america. we need to repay try it that trillion dollars. we need to bring this money home. brig it home tax free. that money is not coming home.

we need that money to come home to build new facilities. and to invest in new tech nothinnot technologies and to hire more people in america and not overseas. that kind of tax policy is the tax policy we need to follow. at the same time, i think it's way over due that we join most of the other advanced nations in the world, our competitors by cutting corporate income tax. in half. as almost every other country has done in the last 10-years. on tax policy, where the left wants to raise taxes, i think we need to make those tax cuts. why? because we want to grow the economy. we want to add jobs for americans. this is not satisfactory that we're not doing anything about

the 7,000,000 americans that lost their jobs in the first two years of the obama administration. we do have to be careful as we talk about this. that people understand that cutting spending will be good for economic growth. that cutting taxes will be good for job creation. that getting rid of obama care will make it more likely for people to get hired. that having a more american energy policy will help our economy grow in america. and we need for people to understand that we're not just interested in cutting spending or reforming entitlements. just for the sake of doing so, the need to understand that this will help us achieve what must be achieved. my old friend and fellow

mississippian is a founder and ceo of fedex. fred has a great saying. he said the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. [laughter] >> the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. the american people need to understand from our party. from conservatives that the main thing is to grow our economy and put people back to work. that economic growth and job creation is what we consider the first national priority. and that these other things means to that end. that we're not trying to cut spending for the sake of cutting spending. we're trying to do so, so that the private economy can have more money. because we understand the difference between our philosophy and the philosophy of the obama administration.

president obama has unlimited faith in limitless government. we all know our founding father's gave us a limited government. so that we, the market place, free enterprize, energy tremendous pew neutrempeneursen farmers. that we can grow our economy and that we can hire people that we can make profits and that we can make america the kind of economy, the dynamic economy that it's been for so much of our lifetime. and that the private sector has to do that. that the private economy is what we want to grow. not the government. [applause]

i close by say together you that i spent a few minutes talking to you about public policy. and the reason is, i think the next election must be about public policy if it's about public policy and the results that would come from those policies will win the election. the american people have looked at obama policies and know they have been bad for the economy. they've been bad for job creation and health care in america. they've been bad for the kind of energy policy that we need to grow. but it's not enough in a presidential election just to say what's wrong with the other guy. we have to make our proposals about what we would do to grow the economy. what we would do to put people back to work in fact to give iowans and americans chance for

better paying, higher skilled, jobs that result in careers, not just a short-term job. that is our obligation. if we meet it, we'll win this election. if we meet it, steve's young family here, this is the number one table at dinner. let me say. that these young people at steve's table will have a far, far better chance to enjoy what we have enjoyed. the greatest, most exceptional, most prosperous nation, society and culture ever managed on the face of the earth. but we have to do what it takes to be sure that these young people get that opportunity.

we can never let it come to pass that our children and grandchildren don't inherit the same country we inherited. thank ya'll very much. [applause] >> now a reporter's round take on what's a head for congress and the president. this is from today's "washington journal". host: we want to welcome. david brody of, cbn. chief political correspondent. thanks for coming back and michael sheer now with the "new york times" previously with the "washington post". the newspaper today the allies open air assault on ghadafi's forces. what's the objective?

guest: that's the big question. there's a short term and long term objective. one is obviously more difficult. the short-term objective is apparently to prevent a kind of human tear yen crisis in the country. concern obviously in europe that then pressureed the united states to join in, which was is colonel ghadafi going to attack and kill thousands of his own people? the pressure the human tear yen pressure to do something to stop that. the broader question is, that you know the united states and the rest of the western world has called colonel ghadafi to leave and step down from power. the question is really, how did the two goals of both that president barack obama expressed. that is not to get involved in a ground campaign. not to participate in extended war he wants this to be over in a matter of days, not weeks or months. how does that square with the

idea of trying to get mr. ghadafi out of power if he doesn't want to go? that's the challenge. these kinds of air campaigns can go on for a long time. host: we heard this morning on mbc's meet the press his staying in power a possibility. >> no doubt. what happens if the rebels some way do come into power? who are these folks exactly? that's a big unknown at this point. i think in terms of objectives you're talking about at least from the president barack obama standpoint. get in, get out and move on. say we didn't let another one go by. host: let me let you listen to part of what ghadafi said a couple of hours ago as he took aim at u.s. and western troops using force on libya, of course this is primarily air strikes. here's ghadafi. >> you are the enemies.

you are criminals. you people are against you. everywhere in europe, america, your people dot know agree with it ch it. the people are against you. your regime and your government will fall down. >> we seen the pictures as well from lib. you how is this playing out in the arab world, i should say, michael? guest: what's interesting. this assault launched at i think, something like the eighth anniversary of the innovation of iraq to the day. the difference though, and in what is striking about this is that there is support for this among parts of the arab world. the arab league actually voted several days ago to encourage the creation of a no-fly zone

and there's extensively air partners in this. interestingly enough, what we've seen in the hours after just the actual assault is we don't see much evidence of that participation. you see french fighter jets and american cruise missiles and bombers but you don't see evidence of the actual participation of the arab countries in the bombing, but clearly, ghadafi not only has become a paria from the western world but you have a slightly different dynamic where there's support from what the united states and west is doing. >> what we're hearing high not yemen or other parts of world that have dib day or th dictato. what you're saying. >> i don't want to call it a pick and choose but clearly there's a place where they need to fight their battles.

face it. political consequence and they understand that and so they need to play in places they think there's a positive political upside. i think that's part of it. i think the situation in bay rain as it relates to saudi arabia and the saudis getting in is much tougher for this administration. guest: think there's a pragmaticism that's playing out in president barack obama foreign policy. pick and choose but not necessarily in an arbitrary political way but also. sort of a cold calculation about where the united states interests are best aligned with the protesting people and the rebels and the opposition and where their best alignd with the folks in power. host: i would suggest the bigger issue for the president here is how this is playing here in washington. you have the anti-war caucus that's clearly started step out and come out against this president on this as they did

with george bush and then of course, you have the diterring crowd. the conservatives and the idea of pacifity. and the other campaigns. he's getting it from both side and this seems to be much more of a political problem back home. host: a couple of stories on the daily blog including sarah palin in i'd india this weekend. what's this about? guest: interesting. what you remember from the campaign is she was much criticized and mockd for a lack of a world u view. lack of no, ma'amming about the world and what goes on outside. since then, she's taken a couple of trip as broad which you know, is anybody's guess how much their intended to repair the imagine. seem likely if she runs for president she'll need a better

perspective on the world and the sense of that. gone to india and that actually a paid speech. she's a member of the washington speakers bureau. they arranged this for her. she'll be going however after the speech, on her way to israel that's not a paid gig but she'll be meeting and assessing that situation for a day and having dinner with the prime minister there as well as other israeli officials and then she'll come back to the united states if she does run for president and anybody's guess if she does. this will be an an important piece to give folk as better sense of her having a better grasp. host: have you sat down with romney or sarah palin? >> not yet. there isa-wol as it rerates to the media and not just with myself but others. you see him on the view or a

couple of other places but i think this is a calculated decision. clearly they need to know what the exact target and strategy will be. relating to sarah palin i sat down with her and we talked about egypt. where she made news as to what she'd do over there or at least her assessment of the situation. we'll see. there's a lot more interviews to come. hopefully. >> did sit down with tom po i tompalenti. >> mary and i are evangelical christians and i'm happy to share that. if people want to take the measure of you in terms of running for office they want to know what your value system is based on. who are you? what do you believe? why do you believe it and that included our faith and what we put our priorities on and where

we turn for help and what we believe in terms of values so. it's a measure of the person and part of - in terms of how they think and what they value and believe. host: based on this interview and others. who's the targeted audience? >> well. evangelicals. clearly with tim for sure. making major play in iowa for them. everyone that says this has not officially gotten under way, it has. it's just semantics. he's playing to the evangelical audience and newt gingrich will too. a lot of people will say how we can he do that with the three marriages but there's a lot of it that rerates to how radical islam plays in the evangelical orbit. that's how it relates to evangelicals on the ground in

iowa and south carolina. not just about abortion and marriage and moral fiscal crisis. radical islam plays a key component on how evangelicals see the world and the candidates. >> i agree. i think the other person i would add if he decides to run is mike huckabee who has his own issues with conservatives broadly speaking. off and on the financial and fiscal side. when it comes to the evangelical crowd. iowa is a proven vote-getter and so forth. >> a story you posted a letter written by someone that's a long supporter and friend of the president. senator from colorado joined by democrats and republicans all member of the senate. what's their message? >> do something about the debt. their message is don't run away from the entitlement programs just because they're tough.

the current debate, as you talked about in the last segment is on the current fiscal year budget. that's going to end at some point. it has to. but you know some time this year. they're going to have to confront this question of how to get control of the nation's soaring debt. the thing that will force them to confront that is this question of raising the debt ceiling which a lot of conservatives and tea party members appose. they don't want it. so, what these 64 senators hope is that they can use the pressure from that vote, that potential vote, to squeeze everyone in this debate and say, okay. we'll raise the debt ceiling and a lawt government to borrow more money but only with long-term fixes. host: medicare? medicaid? social security and taxes? >> exactly and what the lawmaker, there's a group of six senators. three democrats and three republicans at the core of the larger group and they've been

negotiating and meeting privately. the hope is, that, and it's building off the president's tax commission that talked about things but the hope is, if you can find a sort of comprehensive agreement on those things on how to control soaring costs and health care and how you can add just, tweak social security to keep it solvent for longer and how to maybe make changes to the tax code. you do all of that together, and it helps the long-term fiscal crisis for the country and at that point if everyone can see your confronting those things then everyone will do what they need to do. >> presidential politics will defining point for president barack obama be that 200,000 for family income and up that he said taxes need to go up in order to bring down the deficit? >> think that will be a micro issue in an macro lens. i think we have seen newt grin

grich and spectator and chief. this is where all the president according to many presidents is starting to develop this resume of sitting on the sidelines where it's the budget or whether it be in situations in libya where you didn't act fast enough and go down the line. entitlement reform. and the republicans will come out with their l hit for it. they say. guest: chris christie has exactly the same message, disappointment in the president, saying he has not stood up to confront these problems. recently,istie's said you wonder at this point in american history if the political cost may not be as bad as a lot of people think when it comes to touching the third rail of entitlements.

or some of these other economic issues, because of the situation we face. host: is debt commission suggesting that for terminates goes up to 69. it is not an immediate, but over 5 to 10 years. guest: there are all sorts of ways in which you might adjust these things and